Archive for March, 2014

A couple of weeks ago the outside crew showed up to cut out part of the parking lot to make way for the dyer’s garden and outside terrace. It’s amazingly fun to watch the dump trucks, tractors, and various other earth moving equipment carve out the beginning of what I’ve only dreamed about up until now…an outside gathering place in the garden for fiber artists.

It’s been over a month since the last photos of the studio construction. However, that doesn’t mean that progress isn’t being made…just that I’ve been focusing on dyeing inventory so we have SOMETHING to put in the store!!! I’m back-dating these photos so you can get some sort of feel for the time-line. Today’s photos are all about the new walls….

The load bearing wall in the retail area came out and the support beam and posts went in. It’s amazing how open the store feels now.

Did you catch the fireplace in the photos above? That didn’t exist when we started. It was one of those must-have items that I’ve dreamed about for forever. So Chris and Dean made it happen. Can you imagine gathering around it with friends on a snowy winter day?

Another one of my favorite design elements is the 29 foot long counter in the back of the retail area that allows for direct viewing of all the materials handling in the studio. This half wall will be topped with black cherry butcher block countertop.

The dyeing room is coming along as well:

The concrete floor needed to be dug up in order to lay new pipes for floor drains. Afterwards, they poured the new concrete. It’s difficult to imagine the random things you learn when doing something like this project. For instance, see the white pipe sticking up out of the floor in the photo below, near the back of the new concrete? I was quite concerned about that since it is in the middle of a main pathway. Apparently, it will eventually be cut off at floor level so it’s not an issue – it is there to allow for the expansion that occurs when the concrete cures so that no ‘air bodies’ are formed under the surface of the concrete. However, when it was explained to me, all I caught were the phrases ‘air tube’ and ‘to prevent bodies in the concrete’ – let me tell you that makes your adrenaline jump a bit! I must have looked a little frightened because the contractor was very quick to explain it in a bit more detail. Every time I look at that tube I have very Jimmy Hoffa-esque imaginings…and I have a VERY vivid imagination.